Nisha Shanmugaraj, Ph.D.

• PhD in Rhetoric, Carnegie Mellon University
• MA in English, Carnegie Mellon University
• BA in English, University of Vermont

• Cultural Rhetorics
• Public Rhetorics, Civics, and Advocacy
• Applied Public Humanities
• Writing Studies and Pedagogy
• Rhetorics of Image, Sound, and the Body

Nisha Shanmugaraj (she/her) is an Assistant Professor of Writing and Rhetoric with a joint appointment in the Program for Writing and Rhetoric and the English Department at the University of Colorado, Boulder. Working at the intersection of feminist rhetorics, cultural rhetorics, and Asian American rhetorics, her work illuminates and interrogates the “everyday rhetorics” of Asian/American women: how these rhetors employ and interpret communicative acts in their everyday lives. Using rhetorical field methods, Shanmugaraj explores how dominant discourses around race, gender, class, sexuality, and ability shape the lived experiences of Indian American women and how these diasporic subjects envision new rhetorical possibilities through imagined, embodied, affective, and interpersonal sites of meaning. She is currently working on a book project on how Indian American women construct narratives of “healing” from internalized racism. She teaches courses on intersectional feminism, Asian American rhetorics, social change, and cultural rhetorics.

Her work has appeared in venues such as Quarterly Journal of Speech, Composition Forum, and Business and Professional Communication Quarterly and has been recognized by the Coalition of Feminist Scholars in the History of Rhetoric and Composition, the Conference on College Composition and Communication, and more.

• WRTG 3020 Topics in Writing: Race, Class, Gender
• WRTG 2095 Topics in Writing: Ideas for Social Change